Employees Paid to Don Safety Clothing

In a recent court ruling in the US, global food manufacturers, Kraft Foods, were ordered to pay employees for their time changing in and out of safety clothing. This is despite the company and employees agreeing that there would be no pay for the time taken to change into the reflective safety clothing. Unfortunately for the company, this is going to cost them several million dollars in back pay.

Most people understand the value in donning the correct safety clothing, equipment and safety footwear for their job, but it seems that employees are not interested in doing so if they are not paid for it. This has led to John Karsten of the Sun Prairie wondering what has happened to the state of the US labour force. He comments that people usually work together during difficult times to improve conditions for everyone. He questions whether it is unreasonable to ask employees to arrive 10 minutes early to put on the correct safety clothing and work boots, in exchange for a good paying job in a country with a 10% unemployment level.

Surely the benefits of wearing personal safety clothing are more important than remuneration for 10 minutes? Apart from assisting the company comply with health and safety clothing laws, you are also protecting yourself should an accident happen.

However, it seems that employees win this round of the industrial safety clothing debate as Kraft Foods is forced to pay over $4 million in back pay to the current and former employees, despite the former agreement about the safety clothing.